Many people with disabilities are surprised and even shocked when they first experience a level of ignorance and discrimination they didn’t expect in a health care setting. Unfortunately, however, even doctors who treat patients for all kinds of conditions can have negative views – or at least uninformed ones – when it comes to disabled patients.
Not only can this keep people from getting both preventative care and treatment for specific ailments. It can leave conditions undiagnosed.
For example, in the Oscar-nominated documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, a woman with cerebral palsy discusses the time when she was younger, when a surgeon removed her healthy appendix. In fact, the symptoms she was experiencing were caused by a sexually transmitted disease, which she says the doctor never considered because of her disability.
Doctors’ admissions line up with patients’ experiences
While this occurred many years ago, prejudices continue. In one study a few years ago, focus groups of doctors discussed the challenges of treating disabled patients. Some admitted that they found ways to avoid treating them while taking care not to be sued for discrimination. This included telling new patients they had closed their practice.
The doctors’ admissions are confirmed by just a sampling of patient stories. One man said he’s been told by doctors, “I really don’t know what to do with you. Maybe you should go elsewhere.” That “elsewhere,” according to some doctors, involved telling patients in wheelchairs to go to a zoo, cattle processing plant or grain elevator to get weighed because they didn’t have the equipment to do it.
Disability and failure to properly diagnose
If a doctor connects any symptom a patient is experiencing to their disability — whether there is any logical connection or not – without taking the diagnostic steps they would take for a non-disabled patient, they can easily misdiagnose or fail to diagnose a serious and potentially fatal condition or injury. As noted above, ruling out potential diagnoses simply because of preconceived notions about disabled people can also have serious consequences.
Not all misdiagnoses or failures to diagnose meet the legal standard for medical malpractice or negligence. That’s why it’s important to review the details with an experienced medical malpractice attorney. This can help people protect their rights to appropriate treatment and care and to seek justice and compensation for harm done.